Tucker Carlson might be in the doghouse over at Fox News after a New York Times report claimed he’s been consistently leaking information to the “mainstream media,” and it appears that no one is more disappointed than Mark Levin.
Levin, who hosts his own show on the network, used his platform to drag Carlson for betraying the trust and position of power he has at Fox News. Though Levin didn’t specifically name Carlson, the intended target of his tirade was pretty clear.
“I’ve been in this business almost 20 years. I worked in the Reagan administration for 8 years. I never once, not once leaked anything to a newspaper or media outlet, ever — let alone the New York Times and their ilk. Certainly not about the people around me,” Levin said on his radio show (via Media Matters) on Thursday. “That is a serious misunderstanding of one’s role, of loyalty, and character. Let me leave it at that.”
New York Times columnist Ben Smith had confirmed with 16 journalists that Carlson had been their anonymous source for stories about the network and former President Donald Trump, even though Carlson has built his brand on spreading mistrust and contempt for the media. Though some of his friends and Fox News colleagues — Sean Hannity and conservative writer Thomas Lifson — have defended Carlson and condemned the NYT, Levin chose a different approach.
“I would tell my friend Thomas Lifson, we know journalists, so many of them, are unethical. That’s the point. We know that they’ll only keep confidences that they want to keep or keep people anonymous that they want to keep anonymous. We know this, that’s the point, so don’t be surprised when they don’t,” Levin said, referencing Lifson’s recent takedown that tried to shift blame from Carson to the NYT for outing its sources. “I used to be approached by the likes of Brian Stelter, Oliver Darcy at CNN. I never sat down with them, never leaked anything to them. You see, this isn’t a game to me. I’m not positioning myself. This is deadly serious, this is the real world matters here. The real-world matters here. It’s hard enough to be a conservative on radio and TV, it’s hard enough to be a conservative at a newspaper without people leaking against you.”
This drama at Fox News will make people happy to grab the popcorn.
A few years ago, our family took a two-week road trip through the Pacific Northwest. We visited six state parks and four national parks, camped under the Redwoods, frolicked in the Pacific Ocean, hiked through breathtaking scenery, and ate and laughed with friends and family who traveled with us.
Perusing the photos from that vacation (or “family trip” to be more accurate, per M. Blazoned’s brilliant analysis), I see gorgeous vistas and genuine smiles, children playing and families picnicking, magical moments of beauty and bliss.
But photos never show the whole picture, do they? This is a problem in the social media age as studies suggest that constantly seeing people’s “highlight reels” on Facebook and Instagram can lead to sadness and/or jealousy. Apparently, scrolling through photos of our friends basking on beautiful beaches while we’re waging whining wars with our wee ones can make us feel all icky inside. Go figure.
Since I don’t like the thought of people feeling icky inside, I thought it might be helpful to share what you don’t see in our fun family vacation photos:
What you see: A group of happy kids peering down the empty center of an ancient Redwood tree. So cool.
What you don’t see: One of my kids stomping away angrily because I wouldn’t let her slide down the hollow after her much older friend (and Boy Scout) did it first and found it to be too treacherous. (The slope was much longer and steeper than it looks in the photo.)
What you see: My sweet, happy boy on the banks of a swimming hole in Yosemite National Park gazing lovingly at his mother.
What you don’t see: Me carrying this unhappy boy away from said swimming hole while he threw an enormous fit because it was time to go and we couldn’t find the “perfect hiking stick” he had found on the way there. Someone actually slow clapped as I escorted him away. Good times.
What you see: Our big group of family and friends walking into the woods for a lovely picnic lunch under the amazing granite formations of Yosemite.
What you don’t see: We had just driven three cars full of hungry, cranky children in circles for 20 minutes trying to find a parking space near the visitor’s center, to no avail. (Fair warning: Yosemite Valley is NUTS in August.)
What you see: Our little nature lover demonstrating how big the sugar pine cone she found was at our campsite.
What you don’t see: The teeth-gnashing negotiations that ensued when I said she couldn’t bring the sap-dripping pine cone home with her because it was unbelievably sticky and also against park rules. Taking this photo was her consolation prize.
What you see: Six happy kids in a hammock at the campground in Lassen Volcanic National Park.
What you don’t see: Four not-so-happy parents telling kids for the 127th time to stop throwing dirt, stop yelling and screeching (sorry, fellow campers), and stop playing in the fire.
What you see: A gorgeous view of Crater Lake’s incomparably blue waters from the Phantom Ship overlook.
What you don’t see: Me spending the entire 1/2-mile hike to this overlook dealing with a six-year-old melting down because I wouldn’t let him get a Swiss Army knife. (Man, traveling can be tough on the six-year-olds.)
What you see: Kids enjoying beautiful Plaikni Falls in Crater Lake National Park.
What you don’t see: Every one of those kids revolting over the 1.3 mile hike to get there because (and I quote) “We’ve already seeeeen enough beautiful sceneryyyyy!” Wah. Wah. Wah.
What you see: Our three loving children bonding over the beautiful sunset view at Crater Lake.
What you don’t see: Me working through one child’s emotional crisis in the car ten minutes before this moment, and two children fighting so badly ten minutes after this moment that I made them sit in the car together at the campground until they hugged and made up.
We love to travel as a family and our kids are generally great, but they’re kids. And parenting doesn’t stop when you’re on vacation, alas.
It’s not that these photos don’t show an accurate picture of reality. These were real, honest, lovely snippets in time filled with joy and wonder. But it’s also reality that they were bookended with not-so-lovely moments. Such is life. Especially with children, God love ’em.
So don’t be jealous of people’s idyllic family vacation photos. I guarantee their trips have as much normal family drama as yours do, even if their photos don’t show it.
And why would they? We take pictures because we want to remember the good times, not the annoying ones. And over time, the whining, arguing, and complaining that come with traveling all melt away, and what we’re left with is the beautiful memories we’ve chosen to capture and hold onto.
We just need to remember that when we’re looking at someone else’s highlight reel, we’re definitely not seeing the whole picture.
Willow’s transition to pop-punk has proven to be a successful one so far. Her Travis Barker-featuring single “Transparent Soul” was well-received, and now there’s plenty more where that came from: Today, she has announced a new album titled Lately I Feel Everything, which is set for release on July 16. In addition to the Barker collab, Avril Lavigne is also set to appear on the album.
She also shared a new single today, “Lipstick.” As opposed its upbeat predecessor, “Lipstick” is more of a patiently paced but still-thumping number. In a new video for the song, she uses her lipstick and eye shadow as a green screen so images of nature are displayed on her face as she belts out the track.
Press materials note that she began work on the album during the pandemic last year by recording demos at home before re-recording them at a studio when it was safe to do so. Willow says of the album, “I just wanted to let loose with this album. I wanted to have fun and be young and not be so existential and worrying all the time. […] I thought this was a really dope outlet for a new energy I wanted to bring to my music.”
Watch the “Lipstick” video above.
Lately I Feel Everything is out 7/16 via MSFTSMusic/Roc Nation. Pre-order it here.
Now that Coi Leray has featured on the 2021 XXL Freshman class, she’s got more eyes on her than ever. She makes an effort to satisfy the demand for a follow-up hit to her breakout “No More Parties” with her new single, “At The Top,” courtesy of a beat by hitmaking producer Mustard and fellow Freshman honoree Kodak Black.
Featuring a bright, uptempo beat, “At The Top” finds Coi Leray enjoying her newfound fame while reminding listeners that the only thing that’s changed is the number in her bank account. She uses a variety of flows from the lilting melody of the hook to a Playboi Carti-esque, clipped cadence at the beginning of her verse. Kodak, who was recently sentenced to probation in his 2016 sexual assault case, provides a boastful verse to bring the back end of the song home, bragging that he’s “eating branzino fish.”
Coi’s big year has also included a few feature verses as her contemporaries employed her to add her infectious charm to the remix of “Options” by Earthgang and Wale and to DDG’s “Impatient.”
Listen to Coi Leray’s “At The Top” featuring Kodak Black and Mustard above.
Kodak Black is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
During a new interview to promote F9 finally revving its way into theaters on Friday, long-time Fast & Furious star Jordana Brewster revealed the actress she most wanted to recruit to the franchise, and almost did until another mega property swooped in. While responding to a question about director Justin Lin’s dream to get Golden Girls legend Betty White behind the wheel, Brewster revealed that she and co-star Michelle Rodriguez were concocting a plan to get Fleabag writer and star Phoebe Waller-Bridge into the cast, but James Bond beat them to the punch. Via The Hollywood Reporter:
We were like, “She would be so awesome.” And then we were like, “Damnit! They snagged her.” I think she would be great, because Tej (Ludacris) and Roman (Tyrese Gibson) bring so much humor. Which I think you need. There’s so much intensity within the film and so many times you watch these six-minute action sequences and you are just like dying. And then Roman and Tej will lighten it up. I feel like Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s British, ironic humor would add a lot.
Hey, maybe there’s still time. Waller-Bridge’s work with Bond is over, and she’s filming Indiana Jones 5 right now, so there might be an opening in her schedule for the next Fast & Furious movie. Better yet, get her in a car with Betty White, and the tickets practically sell themselves. You almost don’t even need the rest of the cast at that point. Let her break the fourth wall. While driving through a real wall. Is anyone writing this down? Vin? Anyone?
Former Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle has gotten his wish. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Tim MacMahon of ESPN, Jason Kidd will return to Dallas to become the franchise’s next head coach, joining former Nike executive Nico Harrison as part of a reshuffling in a few separate areas of the team.
The Dallas Mavericks have agreements to hire Hall of Famer Jason Kidd as their new head coach and longtime Nike executive Nico Harrison in a lead basketball operations role, sources tell @TheAthletic@Stadium.
Source: Mavs have officially agreed to terms with Jason Kidd to be their head coach and longtime Nike executive Nico Harrison to be the GM and run their basketball operations.
News of the Mavericks’ interest in Kidd, who has spent the last two years as an assistant with the Los Angeles Lakers, has been circulating for a few days, with Carlisle, recently hired by the Indiana Pacers, indicating that he wanted Kidd to get the job due to his similarities with Luka Doncic. On Thursday evening, reports began popping up that Harrison would join Dallas’ front office, with the team having an eye on bringing Kidd on board.
Kidd was drafted by the Mavericks and spent two stints with the team. During his second spell in the Lone Star State, Kidd was the point guard on the Mavs side that won the only championship in franchise history. His coaching career is not quite as decorated — Kidd spent a year as the head coach of the Brooklyn Nets before joining the Milwaukee Bucks, where he spent three and a half seasons before getting fired. For his career, Kidd has accrued a 183-190 record as a head coach.
Spiced rum and summer vibes are great partners. While spiced rum is supposed to be spicy, it’s often far more on the sweeter side of things. Sure cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and maybe some chili pepper make appearances. But, you’re really paying for a sweeter dark rum with the harder edges sanded down by added sugar, vanilla, and brown spices and barks. All of that makes spiced rum the perfect hot-weather mixer.
I’m pretty clearly on the record as not digging flavored booze. I generally ignore spiced rums and go straight for the old dark rums on the shelf. That doesn’t mean I don’t know them, though (I’m a professional taster after all). It’s just that I’ve never found a spiced rum to care about. This doesn’t mean they don’t matter or aren’t good or anything like that. They’re just not my jam.
Anyway, to see if I’ve been unfairly ignoring this massively popular style, I decided to do a blind taste test of eight spiced rums.
Our spiced rum lineup:
Don Papa Masskara
Chairman’s Reserve Spiced
Don Q Oak Barrel Spiced
Black Magic Black Spiced
Bacardi Spiced
Bayou Spiced
Captain Morgan Original Spiced Gold
The Original Sailor Jerry Spiced
The ranking of these is simple. I ordered them according to which bottles tasted the best, had the most nuance, and actually delivered on being spicy and not just sweet. That’s it. And hey, if one of these piques your interest, click on the prices to try it yourself.
This was pure Circus Peanuts and/or Haribo Banana soft candies — like, exactly — on the nose. The taste had a bit of that banana candy with a serious sweetness but real hints of bright orange citrus, slightly bitter citrus, and very mild honey did drive through that sweetness.
The end had a distinct red chili pepper heat with an almost woody/dry feel to it but ended up sickly sweet.
Taste 2
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Hello, Sasparilla! This would make The Stranger in The Big Lebowski say, “Yee-ha!”
The palate merges through bitter orange peels, spiced orange oils, dry raisins, and Red Hots with a serious cinnamon burn. A burnt sugar arrives late and gives this a nose and palate that’s exactly like a candy store at Christmas. It’s all dark barks, oranges, and fruit cakes with a lingering cinnamon afterburn.
Taste 3
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
This smells like a bourbon with hints of creamy vanilla, soft leather, a touch of cedar. The palate has a clear and bitter roasted coffee bean note with a dry woodiness leading towards a very rich and buttery toffee hard candy. The sweetness slowly fades towards a spicy, dry tobacco leaf with a proper and robust finish.
Taste 4
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
There’s a nice mix of soft leather, raisins, and … I want to say … light Caro syrup. There’s a cognac vibe that leads towards a sweet dark cocoa mid-palate. That cocoa quickly fades into a sweet pear candy that drives towards a cinnamon tobacco finish with a hint of vanilla.
Taste 5
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
This is a fruit bomb on the nose with the brightness of a tropical fruit salad next to a whisper of cinnamon and leather. The taste is thin with hints of vanilla and almond but mostly apple Jolly Rancher. There’s a note of honey candy but the end is very light and the sip kind of just disappears.
Taste 6
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
This opens with a mild note of tar on the nose leading towards bananas cooked off in browned butter and served on cinnamon crackers next to a hint of soft leather. The taste luxuriates in a maple syrup sweetness that’s countered by a mix of cloves, allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, and plenty of vanilla. The spice leans slightly peppery as the finish brings about some candied fruit and a full-on holiday cake vibe.
Taste 7
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
This is thin. The nose has a dash of vanilla extract and a very mild spice leading towards sweet hard toffee candies. Those candies soften to a very sweet caramel and that’s about it. The end is non-existent but leaves you with that note of vanilla and toffee/caramel.
Taste 8
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Woah. This is all black tar — that feels like it’s boiling hot — on the nose. The palate has a bit of vanilla that leads towards a black pepper spice and a little note of fruit. The end is very thin and light with no real lingering sense of anything except the smell of that black tar.
Tattoo artist Norman “Sailor Jerry” Collins is the inspiration behind this brand. The rum in the bottles is a mix of Caribbean rums from undisclosed warehouses. The spice mix is unknown but tends to be cinnamon and vanilla heavy.
Bottom Line:
That heavy tar nose and thin body didn’t do this one any favors. I really can’t see using this as a sipper. But I could see burying it in a tropical cocktail, maybe. Probably not though.
This rum is one of the most popular drinks in the world. Yet, there’s not a whole lot of practical information about what’s in the bottle. It’s bottled in the U.S. Virgin Islands from rums likely sourced from Jamaica and Guyana. The spice blend is undisclosed but leans heavily into vanilla and allspice.
Bottom Line:
I mean, this is made to be mixed with Coke. So you really can’t fault this for being one-note in that respect. This isn’t pretending to be anything other than a sweet, vanilla-driven mixer. It’s just so thin that’s it’s really hard to care about it.
Bacardi Spiced is a classic mix of unaged and aged rums from Bacardi’s Puerto Rican stills. The exact spice blend in play isn’t disclosed but we know there’s vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg in the mix thanks to the label.
Bottom Line:
Fruit candy is fine as a flavor. But when that’s all there is, it’s pretty disappointing. Still, this was approachable but very thin. It 100 percent feels like it’s built to be mixed with Coke and, again, that’s fine.
This Filippino rum is started with local “black gold” molasses. The juice is aged for seven years in oak under the shadow of Mount Kanaloan. The rum is then infused with calamansi citrus (a sort of half lime and half mandarin Filippino fruit).
Bottom Line:
The sweetness in this was so powerful. Still, there were clear notes of citrus and chili pepper under all that sweetness. It’s not bad but way too sweet for me. It was also bold and full-bodied without that extreme thinness of the last three on this ranking.
There aren’t a lot of details about this rum. We know it’s from Barbados and bottled in the U.S. The juice is purported to be a blend of light and dark rums with a touch of caramel coloring.
Bottom Line:
I wrote “not bad…” in the margin of my tasting notes. The softness, that mild leather, and that hint of cocoa were all very enticing. I’d definitely revisit this in a cocktail but probably not as a sipper.
This Saint Lucia rum is a classic, five-year-old rum that’s aged in ex-bourbon barrels. The rum is infused with a mix of cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, vanilla, coconut, allspice, lemon, orange, and bwa bandé (the bark from richeria trees which is an Indigenous Carib aphrodisiac).
Bottom Line:
The nose on this is pure sasparilla in the best way. The flavors on the palate were dialed in and distinct. I could actually see sipping this on the rocks or in a highball pretty easily.
This Louisiana craft rum keeps things local. The rum is made with locally grown sugar cane. The spice mix is undisclosed but comprised of spices all grown in Louisiana. The water the juice is cut with comes from a local spring, adding a final layer of uniqueness to the expression.
Bottom Line:
This felt very well-rounded while kind of hitting on all the elements of the other spiced rums while staying unique. It also felt like a real workhorse rum that’ll shine in a cocktail or over the rocks while holding onto its depth and identity.
Puerto Rico’s Don Q Oak Barrel Spiced is a dark rum blend of three to six-year-old barrels. The rums are spiced with vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove. The juice is then proofed to a fairly higher-proof (for a spiced rum anyway) of 45 percent.
Bottom Line:
This was clearly the most refined and drinkable spiced rum. It wasn’t even close really. I’ll fully admit that this rum’s flavor profile leaning towards bourbon notes helped it win. But this felt both like a real drink while also being nicely complex. I wouldn’t hesitate to pour this over some rocks and sip on it all day long under the shade of a tree on a hot summer day.
I can also see it working wonders in any number of cocktails.
Part 3: Final Thoughts
Zach Johnston
I can’t say there were too many surprises in this tasting. These rums are all way more sweet than spicy, but I already knew to expect that.
The top three were all pretty fine in their own ways and I could see getting into them a bit more, playing around with cocktails, and just enjoying them every now and then.
Overall, I’m glad I found the Don Q spiced rum. It’s a nice break from all the bourbon in my life and feels like a great accompaniment to the summer days and nights ahead. That’s my only “must try” from this lineup.
In the fifth episode of The Ringer’s No Skips podcast — the one about DMX’s debut album It’s Dark And Hell Is Hot — the show’s hosts make an unsettling, insightful, and surprisingly comforting observation. Shea Serrano, author of The Rap Year Book and superfan of the film Blood In, Blood Out (his Twitter profile picture is Damian Chapa’s Miklo, which still causes no shortage of confusion among that app’s users), points out that DMX’s baseline for concern is the threat of death. In other words, nothing phases the Dark Man; any insinuation of potential loss or harm pales in comparison to the thought of his ultimate demise.
Co-host Brandon “Jinx” Jenkins, a veteran journalist who most recently profiled J. Cole for Slam magazine’s June/July 2021 cover (the first time an entertainer has accomplished this feat, although technically Cole also counts as a pro hooper), is blown away by Shea’s observation, and the two embark on a long aside in which they contemplate several hypothetical iterations of this newly discovered maxim. It’s thoroughly entertaining, it’s instructive, it’s funny as all hell; it’s everything a podcast should be. I am not a podcast guy by any means, but I have been locked in. Every Thursday when a new episode drops, I am locked in, eager to hear what sharp witticisms or goofy tangents these two intriguing hosts are willing to share.
The show is, ostensibly, about hip-hop — specifically, the albums that helped make hip-hop what it is today, the seismic, landscape-altering, culture-defining meteorites that seemed to fall from someplace beyond our atmosphere to throw up massive mushroom clouds of cosmic dust and rearrange everything we think we know about The Way Things Are. The two hosts, who couldn’t be more different, yet have this one thing in common — a deep, lasting love of hip-hop and an overlapping existence with its most explosive era — explore the impacts of albums like Lil Kim’s Hard Core, Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III, Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid, MAAD City, and most recently, Jay-Z’s Reasonable Doubt, but they also joke about basketball, movies, and being kids in the ’90s, all while roundly abusing their effects-laden producer Kerm (Jonathan Kermah) and taking cues from Deena Morrison, who presides over silly debates and drops gems of wisdom throughout each episode while keeping them in line.
When I was given the opportunity to interview Shea and Jinx about the show over Zoom, I leaped at it; after all, the thing they have in common with each other, I have in common with them. The result was, as expected, every bit as hilarious and insightful as their show, with all the deviations, non-sequiturs, in-jokes, and surprising, sharp insights that make their show such a joy to listen to. Check it out below.
So guys, thanks for sharing this time with me, and taking the time out of your busy schedules. I know you guys are both doing a lot. Let’s get right into it. So, No Skips. From soup to nuts, can someone please explain to me, how the show came to be?
Shea: Ew! What is that? What is that saying? “From soup to nuts?”
It’s a real saying, Shea!
Shea: That’s not a real saying, people don’t say that. Who says that?
It’s an actual saying from when they used to have soup at the beginning of dinner, and they would have a port or a sherry with warm nuts at the end. Like, dessert.
Shea: Is that a real thing? Brandon, have you ever heard of that?
Yes, I just looked it up. I specifically wanted to say it just to see what you would say.
Shea: Well, you got a reaction. Because that’s gross. That’s gross.
I don’t know how it went for Brandon. I know on my end, the idea of doing a music version of The Rewatchables had been floating around in the Ringer universe, in Slack for a while. A couple of years. TD hit me up one day and he said, hey, we’re going to do this show, No Skips. It’s like rap Rewatchables. Do you want to do it? And I was like, I don’t know. I don’t know if I want to do that. Who else is going to be on it? And they said, “Oh, we’re going to try and get Brandon Jenkins.” And then I was like, Yeah, I want to do it now. Sign me up.”
Jinx: That’s pretty much how it went for me. As soon as they said it, I was like, alright. Because I think everyone that’s a fan of The Rewatchables has sort of imagined, What would this be like for music? I was like, all right, yeah. I’ve been DM-ing Shea for like four years.
So walk me through the construction of an episode, from the conception. Like, deciding the album. How do you guys decide on the album? And then what goes into the process of making the episode?
Jinx: Before even the paperwork was done, Shea and I both went to our respective corners. We both showed up on DM like, “Yo, I made a list.” He’s like, “Yo, I made a list too.” And we both had a lot of overlap. So we’ve kind of picked a big pool of albums that we want to rock with. And then Shea, Deena, and I, and then the rest of the production team, we all just started to list out what we thought would be a dope impact. We’re basically sequencing episodes how you’d sequence an album.
Shea: We lean on Deena for a lot of that stuff. For me, I always feel comfortable being very specific in a very small window. But I’m not good at getting a big picture and being like, “Well, here’s how you make a whole thing good.” So I lean on Deanna a lot for that: To be like, “How do I make that?”
If it was just me, we would’ve done like a two-year stretch of windows of albums that came out that I only cared about. And that would be the whole thing. And Deena was like, “No, no, no, let’s build it this way.”
In a prime incident of great minds think alike, I was actually about to ask, what is the story that you’re trying to tell with each episode and the sequence?
Jinx: Shea says this thing a lot, of these moments that used to happen on the internet more frequently and less frequently now, where everyone cared about the same thing. So when we’re picking albums, it’s thinking like that. That was a big moment, when Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ came out, everyone cared about this album. And we think about trying to structure episodes like that. Like, what’s going to be the things in these episodes that everyone’s going to care about or talk about? And it might not be every category, but we’re thinking about looking at the albums like that.
So when you get Lil Wayne’s The Carter III, that’s a totally different tone than Get Rich Or Die Tryin’. Completely different. Or you get an album that’s a little slower, like Good Kid, MAAD City has a whole different ethos, tone, content. And sometimes these artists are talking about the same thing, right? Growing up or coming of age, but from these different corners of the world, different times. So for a lot of it, what we’re doing is knowing that no albums the same. So we’re not trying to approach each one in the same. Like, The Carter III is going to be a way more insane episode than Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid, MAAD City, because Wayne’s music is so much more insane.
Shea: Yeah, that sounds right. The primary goal is to just celebrate stuff that we like. And then the secret goal, the background goal is, probably, if we get to do all the albums that we want to do, we will have pretty much covered the history of rap. I think that’s, for me, the coolest part of the show is teeing it up in the beginning. Because for the middle hour and 20 minutes, it’s just me and Brandon making some jokes and having fun and doing whatever.
But in the very beginning and at the very end, it starts and Brandon does this thing, and I think that he’s the best person on the internet at doing this thing, where, in a two-minute stretch, he’s able to build out what was happening in rap at the time when this album came out and what was happening with this person when this album came out. So he does that for two minutes. And then at the end, we’re like, “Okay, this album came out 12 years ago, what has changed since then? What’s the legacy look like?”
If you were to take all of those pieces that he’s done, it’s like he’s building a map. And you’re like, “Oh, here’s the Lil Wayne section. Oh, it kind of overlaps with this Kanye section.” But just Venn diagram a little slice of it. He’s doing that with all these things. And by the end of it, he will have covered the entire history of everything. I think that’s a big-picture goal that I would like to see happen with it. But that’s what I look forward to the most because I don’t see that part when he does it. He just shows up and I’m like, “Alright, let’s go.”
One of the things I really love about this show is that you guys have a very classic, comedic duo chemistry, like an Abbott and Costello, or like Magic and Kareem, or Penn and Teller — on Nick, N-N-N, N-N-N-Nick… Just kidding. So what do you guys do when you can’t agree on an album to do, or when you can’t agree on what the perspective, or how to make this thing come together? Because you are coming from two different backgrounds, two different locations, age groups, all of that.
Shea: I don’t know that we’ve had that happen yet because the point of the show is not to agree on everything, the point of the show is to just talk about the thing that you like. I think that’s sort of what makes it the most fun is we both show up ready to celebrate a thing. The Kanye West Graduation episode will be out [after this interview]. And we show up and we start talking about it, and Brandon is like, “Oh, guess what? I really like ‘Drunk And Hot Girls.’ It’s an underrated song.” And I’m like, “Well, that’s a terrible opinion to have.” And so we’re arguing about this thing that we like, but we’re arguing because we like it in different ways. And ultimately it feels good. But it’s okay to not agree, it’s okay to just be like, “F*ck you, that’s wrong.”
So one of the things that you guys said during the Lil’ Kim episode, which really stuck with me. Jinx was really fascinated by the line that she says, “The rap Pam Grier’s here.” And that was the first moment that he knew what she was talking about. And then Shea was like, but it was a lot more fun when you had no idea and just made up wild shit. But was just how we grew up. And then kind of contrast that with, we have a world where Genius is a thing now, and kids can just look it up and they just kind of take it for granted.
Jinx: Man, that part was fun. Yeah, it’s sort of gone now. Me and Shea were actually talking about this. Yeah, just having that open field where you don’t know shit and that’s fun. Like how you used to argue sports stats and then be dead wrong. And now, there’s got to be a kid now who just pulls his phone out and you’re like, “Alright, I guess we’re all friends now.”
But I remember adding mad significance to lines. I remember interviewing Jadakiss one time. And he has this line on his second album. I think it’s on “Still Feel Me,” but I could have it wrong. But he says, “Hugged the kite and swallowed the stamp.” I know that a kite is a letter for someone in jail. But why would he eat the stamp? And then Jada’s like, “No, he’s not really eating a stamp. It’s just more like, he’s holding a letter close to his heart.”
It’s metaphorical.
Jinx: Yeah. And I was like, “Oh.” And then he’s just sort of like, “Why the f*ck are you interviewing me?” Like, you don’t get that. But it’s hearing rap, especially some of the albums, I mean, Shea talked about, we were a lot younger. So sometimes you hear this stuff, you interpret it based on what you know about the world, and then you don’t really revisit it because you move on to new music. And hearing a lot of these albums, I’m going back and being like, Oh, there’s a joy in kind of f*cking it up. There’s a joy in not having art explained.
Shea: I remember that being a thing just before the internet came out where if you didn’t know a thing, and none of your friends knew the thing, then whoever said an answer with the most confidence you were like, “Well, I guess that’s true, that must be the written…” A rap version of that is: We were just talking about Lil Kim and there’s a part in the episode where, where we were talking about some predictions that she made in the song, she has a line about “Money ruined this money ruined that, whatever money came between us…” In the mid-’90s, there was this whole big thing that happened with the Seattle Supersonics where this guy got a contract that the star didn’t get. And the team fell apart and you’re like, “Oh sh*t, I think she’s talking about the Seattle Supersonics right now.”
…And she wasn’t. Or there was a line that Raekwon had, where I found out later around the line is, “remember, I go deep, like a Navy Seal.” But he says it in that Raekwon voice where it sounds like, “Remember I got teeth like a baby seal.” And you’re like, “What? I don’t understand, I don’t know what this means. Why is he talking about a baby seal? Why he’s talking about my teeth?” And you’re trying to figure it out because, by this point, the Wu-Tang Clan was out there and everything they did had nine different meanings and you’re trying to figure it. And you’re just digging through whatever you can dig to try to figure out, Why is he talking about baby seal teeth? It was just like a fun time to listen to rap. It’s just great to not know.
So one of my favorite things about the show is the segment Flagrant Foul, which you guys renamed about three episodes in out of nowhere because you guys love to just throw a curveball.
Shea: Brandon came up with that. That was Brandon. That was all Brandon’s idea.
Do you guys have a favorite Flagrant Foul so far? Because our favorite rappers are very flagrant.
Jinx: I’m trying to think of one that really stands out. I think Lil Kim’s honestly. She has crazy stuff. She was like drying herself with a gun.
Shea: No, that was Lil Wayne. “The gun is my towel.” A big Lil Kim foul was when she said she was getting people from the Harlem Boys Choir performing oral sex on her or something like that. Like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
The Flagrant Foul thing is maybe my favorite category on there. And it was one of those things where we Brandon and I, over the course of a month or two, were work-shopping ideas and said, “Oh, we got to do this, and we got to do that.” A lot of the time, we would argue back and forth about a thing or talk back and forth about a thing. But when he said, “Oh, we should do this,” There was no argument at all. It was like, “Oh, that’s exactly what we should do. Exactly how you pitched.” It was just such a good, smart, fun idea. It just made me very happy. That was, that was all Brandon right there.
I do have to say you guys bully Kerm relentlessly. I need to know the origins of this. Why is Kerm constantly the target of the bullying? What did he do to deserve this?
Jinx: Look, I just met Kerm. But the thing with Kerm is he played ball. The first time we were like, “Yo, Kerm, maybe you should sing ‘One Skip.’” [This is sung to the tune of Ray J’s “One Wish” and it’s a screamer] And he was down. And then after that, it was like, “Alright, Kerm, maybe you should sing those skips like Ray J, maybe you should sing ‘One Skip’ like Lil Wayne singing like Ray J.” And so it just gets crazier and crazier, but Kerm is starting to turn on us. He’s starting to fight back in some ways, but Kerm’s great. The stuff he does in the show really takes it to the next level. Being able to bring in musical notes, he really gets the humor of the show. There are times where we invent a category essentially for the episode. And Shea’s like, “Kerm, give us these noises, give us these noises,” and Kerm goes, and they’re better than what we’re saying. I’m like, “Kerm, gunshots.” And he comes with a real noise.
Shea: But when you get on there, I know that Brandon is going to have his sh*t done. Deena is going to have hers done. Kerm is going to have his done. I’m going to have mine done. And it just works. But that’s like a good example. With the silliness of the gunshot noises, there’s real actual work that Kerm has to do for that. He works very hard on all that stuff. We cut out when y’all were talking about the bullying thing. I don’t know if y’all settled on an answer for that.
Jinx: But the funny thing is that Kerm is building his own Kerm-hive. And then they start to turn against us. So we need to play our cards right. Because I feel like Kerm is amassing an army that’s supportive of him.
It’s what happens! It’s the Fat Amy effect.
Shea: Then I’m like, what the hell? I’m busting my butt over here. Kerm comes in for 30 seconds. And that’s all anybody wants to talk about. Kerm can go to hell. That’s the title of this article when you can post it on Uproxx. “Kerm Can Go To Hell.”
Do you think you can make the best burgers in the game? Has that smash burger style influenced you? Do you have a good bacon-to-sauce-to-cheese ratio? How are those buns looking? Buttered? Steamed? Toasted?
UPROXX’s new series, Cooking Battles, based on our viral editorial series, pits two cooks against each other to see if they have the chops to wow with their food. People’s Party’s Jasmin Leigh is on hand to judge the first showdown.
Episode one opens with food writer, influencer, and home-cook Caitlin Sakdalan (@befatbehappy) facing off against L.A. pop-up chef Ralph Degala (@ralphdegala) in the ultimate burger battle. Each chef’s burger was inspired by a drawing from a younger member of their families, meaning creative interpretation levels were running high. From there, each chef went their own way in how they put together their burger. Chef Degala focused on making a bomb-looking Filippino-inspired burger sauce with HEINZ products. Chef Sakdalan brought the heat with HEINZ mayo-toasted buns and funky blue cheese.
There was, thankfully, a lot of bacon going around in both burger kitchens.
After the chefs cooked their burgers, Jasmin Leigh stepped in to cook each burger at home — per the chef’s instructions — to see who made the best rendition. Though the taste was a core component of Leigh’s adjudication, she also judged each burger on “Presentation, Build of the Burger, Use of Sauce, Closest to the Drawing, and Creativity.” We all know a messy burger might taste great but only until it falls apart or covers you in buckets of sauce.
Watch the whole video above to see who took home the win on the very first episode of Cooking Battles on UPROXX!
Britney Spears speaking about her conservatorship in court recently drew reactions from just about everybody, from Piers Morgan to Chris Crocker from the “Leave Britney Alone” video. The topic found its way into Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show monologue last night and he found a clever way to show his support for Spears.
Colbert started by summarizing the situation. When he mentioned Spears’ father Jamie, there was a smattering of boos from a handful of audience members. He then got into Spears’ court appearance and how she said her conservators should be in jail, which lent itself to a “not that innocent” joke from Colbert.
He wrapped up the segment by using Spears song titles to make his point, flipping through single covers of the corresponding words as he said them. He said,
“I have something to say to the court: Your honor, this conservatorship over Britney Spears is ‘toxic.’ The fact that this is legal is ‘criminal.’ ‘Everytime’ I think of the ‘circus’ around her, I ‘scream and shout’ because this is ‘crazy.’ Britney’s saying, ”I wanna go’ because all these people want a ‘piece of me,” but their response is just, ‘Gimme more.’ Britney, ‘don’t cry.’ You are ‘stronger’ than these ‘womanizers’ and we are ‘lucky’ to have you. Jamie Spears, your daughter deserves to be in control of her own ‘work, b*tch.’ Anyone who doesn’t think so is ‘crazy.’ Oh, I already used that one? Well, ‘oops!… I did it again.’”
It’s a clever bit, so check it out above, starting at about 6:35 into the video.
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Megan’s new fish too fire 
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